By: E&P Staff
In today's edition, the White House plans for an overhaul of the pressroom, the Los Angeles Times decided to run ads on some section fronts, and concerns that anti-media sentiment could jeopardize the possibility of a national shield law the protect journalists.***
LAT to Run Ads on Some Section FrontsLos Angeles Times: In an attempt to increase revenue, the newspaper will begin accepting advertisements on the front pages of some sections of the newspaper, including Calendar and Sports. With the announcement Monday by Publisher Jeff Johnson, The Times joins several other newspapers that recently announced that they would sell ad space on one or more section fronts, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune.
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White House Pressroom Gets a MakeoverWall Street Journal: The new room will likely include a video wall that could display everything from "flags waving in the breeze [to] detailed charts and graphs," according to a senior White House official working on the project. For TV viewers, the video feed could be the sole on-screen image, or could share the space with the speaker. White House officials say they are weighing how -- and how often -- to use the video capability. But the new technology could help transform White House briefings -- midday exchanges with reporters in a utilitarian setting -- into more interesting viewing.
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AOL Adds Potential Obstacle to Planned Sale of Its British ArmGuardian: The sale of AOL's British business has hit a snag because the Internet service provider wants to retain contact with its 2.5 million customers, demanding that they continue to be routed through to its online portal -- a move that has put the unit's price tag in doubt. AOL's parent, Time Warner, is due to announce its second-quarter results tomorrow and update analysts on plans for its Internet business. The merger of the two firms was announced at the height of the dotcom boom but soon became a casualty of the subsequent crash in valuations.
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Anti-Media Sentiment Could Leave Journos UnshieldedAmerican Journalism Review: A new bill gives journalists a qualified privilege to protect their sources in federal proceedings, and it comes at a time when that privilege is being challenged with increasing frequency. In the past two years, more than 30 reporters have been subpoenaed or questioned by federal court officials about their confidential sources.
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Niche Competitors Crowd Into MySpaceUSA Today: As the social networking phenomenon continues to grow, competitors are snapping at MySpace's heels ? er, portal. Facebook, Xanga, Wayn, vMix and others are salivating over MySpace's 95 million users and recent crowning by tracking service Hitwise as the Internet's most visited domain, surpassing longtime champ Yahoo Mail. By some accounts, there are more than 200 such sites, many aimed at niches.
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Journalism Without JournalistsNew Yorker: "As of now, there is not much relation between claims for the possibilities inherent in journalist-free journalism and what the people engaged in that pursuit are producing," writes Nick Lemann. "As journalism moves to the Internet, the main project ought to be moving reporters there, not stripping them away."
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Inside the Tabloid WarsCJR Daily: "Bravo's new series has shocked journalists and editors with how accurate a picture it paints of life inside a newspaper, in this case the New York Daily News," writes Gal Beckerman. "One of the show's executive producers, Belisa Balaban, talks to [CJR] about the challenges and insights that came out of reporting on reporters."
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On Passion and JournalismNY Sun: "The best reporters are those who hate the news," writes David Blum. "The ones we gravitate to in times of crisis are those whose palpable anger pierces their dispassionate prose, and who communicate to the audience the same hatred for bloodshed and destruction that we feel, but cannot articulate or express."
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